It's Now the Kids' Problem

As Holly has previously mentioned our two cats are the best cats ever (can hear me snickering?). I will leave you with a short list of their wonderful, charming attributes:

1. They play in their cat food sending it flying far from their food bowl. And then they whine because their food bowl is empty and apparently cat food on the floor is too good for them.
2. When they are fed and have a full bowl of food, they look down their kitty noses at the kibble as if we were feeding them something from their cat box.
3. The cat box is a toy.
4. Ashley goes to school every day with at least one new scratch on her. This is, of course, not entirely of the cats' doing. She totally antagonizes them, smothers them, or does some other horrible thing to cause such recourse.
5. They climb e-ver-y-thing. If we're particularly lucky, they knock something over in the process.
6. They have have figured out how to get on the kitchen counters.
7. One of them whines at the door to be let out. Constantly. Incessantly. All.of.the.time.
8. The best and sometimes only bed they will sleep on is Holly. And only while Holly is also trying to sleep.

To remedy this last problem we moved the cats' food and water to the hall so we could kick them out during sleeping hours. Because the cat box is in our bathroom (with only an entrance through our bedroom) one of us would have to open the door at some point in the night. We learned this when we discovered cat poo in the kids' bathtub. At least they had the decency to not poo on the carpet.

Well, the cats wised up to our plans. Instead of simply pooing in the cat box once we open the door in the middle of the night, they have realized that Holly is still sleeping at this time and must be slept upon.

NO MORE! I have figured out a way to get the cat box to fit in the kids' bathroom without too much problem. Well, it fits without too much problem. It living in their bathroom could cause plenty of problem. I foresee the kids standing on it, Ashley playing in it (ick, I know, but she's done it before), or the kids forgetting and shutting the door leaving the cats no way to access it.

But I don't care. I don't want my wife waking up at 4 a.m. anymore because the cats are using her as a pillow and she can't fall back to sleep.

I'll move it when company comes over because even though I maintain it fairly well, it is still a cat box. Now I'll just have to remember to remove the cat box and leave a roll a high quality toilet paper in the kids' bathroom when our honored guests (read: 4 year-olds visiting for play dates or Holly's college friend) arrive.